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THE TWO REBELLIONS ! 



A FEW WORDS 

TO 

HIS EXCELLENCY THE HON". C. F. ADAMS, 

ETC. ETC. 

TOUCHING HIS HEREDITARY RELATIONS 

TO 

REBELLION, 

FEOM ONE 

WHO LIKE HIMSELF IS THE GRANDSON 

OF AN U\ 

AMERICAN REBEL. 



BY Tl. S. II. CHURCH, 
it 



** Handy-dandy ! Which is the justice, which is the thief ?" — Shakespeare, 



LONDON: 

WILLIAM RIDGWAY, 169, PICCADILLY. W, 
1865. 

PHce Sixpence. 



The original of the Letter now in print, was forwarded by 
post to Mr. Adams some weeks ago, but has not been in any- 
way acknowledged. A friend has chosen to publish it, A 
little matter has been added. 

B. S. H. a 



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Lime Tree Cottage, The Moor, Uxbridge. 
Friday, May 12tk, 1865. 

Sir, 

The grandson of Philip Schuyler, and 
nephew of Alexander Hamilton, needs offer, he be- 
lieves, no apology at this melancholy crisis, for 
addressing- himself to the grandson of John Adams. 

We have each of us in childhood sat on the knee 
of one, or the other, of these eminent men,— fellow 
labourers through a mighty toil to a successful end 
— we have both of us been taught to look back with 
affectionate interest on their deeds, to feel proud of 
having in our veins the blood of men who, by their 
daring and their genius, set in action by their sense 
of duty, converted a rebel Colony into a free and 
independent State. It is under the privilege of my 
kinship to two of these men, and in invoking* their 
memory, that I take leave to address you. 

You have lately felt it your duty, in consequence 
of a most deplorable event, to make an address to 
your fellow countrymen then present in London. 
The topic on which you had to speak was doubtless 
a most painful and exciting one. 

That best friend of a bad cause, the assassin, had 
just been at work. 

It is the enormous evil, and fatal blunder of this 
accursed crime, that for a time, and that a very 

A 2 



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critical one, it purifies and exalts the victim, and 
throws a halo around his instruments. Assassinate 
the Devil, and there will be instantly a rush of sym- 
pathy towards his imps. 

A great criminal is struck at, escapes or falls ; 
men hasten to his levee or his tomb ; they do it 
merely as a protest against crime, it has the pre- 
sent effect of passing* for a homage to virtue. I 
have myself experienced a temporary reaction, 
caused by the extreme indignation with which I 
was fired, at this most detestable of crimes. 

That under such circumstances you should have 
spoken with heat, or overabounded with eulogy, or 
execration, would have been natural, and in this 
case it would not have been fair to have criticized 
you. But nothing of the kind appears ; it is mani- 
fest that in your speech, every word has been care- 
fully selected, every opinion carefully delivered. 
The victim becomes anything but a hero, whose loss 
is irremediable. On the spot where the emotion was 
intense, the American Eagle was craped to the very 
tip of its beak, its talons alone unhampered, and 
sharpened for immediate domestic use. Not a brick 
was there to be seen uncovered in its cities, so 
draped their houses with funeral trappings and 
devices, and an ostentatious pageantry of woe, such, 
as in 1852, I saw at Boston *on the occasion of a 
Statesman^ death, who, had he been living, would 
have rendered Mr. Lincoln, and his Cabinet 
impossible. 



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But though the grief be intense, the loss you 
calmly assure us is trifling- ; save that, with singular 
inconsistency and irreverence, you say that Lincoln's 
memory will rank close to that of Washington's, 
your appreciation of his political value is singularly 
tame. On him, despite his prominent position amid 
a great catastrophe, you tell us no responsibility 
rests. Pie but did as he was bid ; the sovereign 
people " designated their wishes, and were empha- 
tically obeyed," A good and faithful servant has 
been removed, and that is all. 

You kneel with the rest of your countrymen at 
Lincoln's tomb, but it is clear that your hero is not 
the dead lion, but the living one ; it is on the new 
" Abdiel," as you style him, that your thoughts are 
fixed ; it is clear you do not believe that he will be a 
servant. As he came drunk into the Vice-Presi- 
dency^ so he comes savage into the Presidency ; but 
} r our theory of a designation" has passed away ; you 
do not wait to hear how the sovereign people will 
receive his words of blood or confiscation, whether 
or not they will reverse their policy of clemency at 
his bidding. " Abdiel" has spoken 5 and it is now the 
country, you think, which will implicitly obey. In 
trim and classic phrase you tell us, " it may be that 
he will give greater prominence to the image of jus- 
tice than to that of mercy, in dealing with notorious 
offenders ; it may be, that in his policy he may dis- 
play a little more of sternness gathered from the 
severity of his own trials," that is derived from his 



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own personal resentments. It is lie, manifestly, 
who will give the tone to the sovereign people, not 
they who will u designate" it to him. Good reason 
have we then to he alarmed. "Treason/' says Mr. 
Andrew Johnson, u is the greatest of crimes, and 
traitors must be punished !* Gracious Heavens ! is 
it possible that you of all men, can with bended knee 
hail the advent of such a man, and such a policy, 
and without a shudder, prepare the ears of English- 
men for the announcement of some imperial ukase 
big 1 with violence and confiscation ?* 

Treason, the worst of crimes ! says an American 
President ; wiry, it is as if William of Normandy 
had proclaimed, " that bastardy was the foulest of 
pedigrees, and that bastards should be punished." 
Treason no doubt is a great crime; but Hampden 
in England, and Washington and Hamilton in 
America, thought there was a greater, that namely, 
of compelling men by misgovernment, disregard of 
contracts, contempt of rights, and arbitrary excesses 
to have recourse to treason. Now, Sir, before yow 
consent to hand over the reputation of these men, 
to one, who from being the furious champion of 
slavery, has become a furious persecutor of slave- 
holders, — before you consent to sully an honourable 
name; by continuing to be the servant of such a man 
and policy, I beseech of you in all earnestness, and 
by our interest in the fame of those from whom we 

* The Ukase has appeared since this was written — was 
manifestly expected. It is worthy of the worst clays of Russia. 



descend, to give your most serious attention to cer- 
tain passages I propose to offer you from American 
history. 

Let me first carry you back to the year 1775. 
The rebellion is proceeding*, the agitation is extreme. 
The fearful alternative of separation (secession) 
from the Mother Country is troubling 1 men's minds, 
cannot, as yet, find its way to their lips. The 
Members of Convention are in session at Philadel- 
phia. Stern men at a stern work. Among them 
is one man whom his colleagues manifestly shun. 
Yet, among them, none is more respectable, or res- 
pected ; a delegate from a leading Eastern State, 
worthy both on public and private grounds, of the 
highest consideration. And who is this man? he is 
one w T ho plunged into the war of independence, that 
is into the great American rebellion, with an ardour, 
a courage, and inflexibility of purpose, unsurpassed 
by any. Believing in his conscience that separation 
was the only satisfactory solution of the difficulty, 
he did not pause to weigh the almost imponderable 
particles of political casuistry, or to examine with 
anything like a microscopic conscience the nature of 
his obligations as a colonist to the parent State. 

While Washingtonjust appointed to the command 
of the continental levies, was with scrupulous loyalty 
deprecating hostile collision with the Crown, and 
persisting in regarding the soldiers opposed to him 
as those of the Minister, not of the King, this 
man, impatient for a rupture, was exhorting to 



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violence, and war. The hottest secessionist of the 
South of this day might envy his precipitancy, and 
look upon that man as a model, who disclaimed all 
parley, u and regarded powder and artillery" as the 
only negociators proper to be employed. Why 
then, at the period we are speakings of, is this man 
shunned? Because, while the boldest are still 
shrinking* from whispering the word separation, he 
has just thvndered it forth, in tones which at first 
terrify the timid, and disgust the prudent, but which 
finally growing- familiar to every ear, and finding- an 
echo in every heart, will everywhere be recog-nized 
as the proper emphasis, in which an indignant, and 
injured Nation should speak. And who then is this 
man? John Adams. Your own grandfather, 
John Adams. Fame has placed a laurel round his 
brow y is it for his grandson to tear it thence, and 
throw it at Andrew Johnson's feet ? I will not insult 
him by supposing it possible. 

In thus bringing to your recollection the earnest 
patriot, as his countrymen styled him — the hot- 
headed rebel, as the oppressors of his country called 
him — I have surely given you some reason for not 
too hastily endorsing Presidential tirades against 
treason, or threats of vengeance against traitors. I 
will now proceed to show you that } t ou are equally 
bound to use extreme caution how }ou sanction this 
charge of treason. 

Let me fix your attention on an occurrence in the 
House of Representatives in the year 1810. The 



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subject before the House was the proposition to 
erect the Orleans territory into a state. A distin- 
guished member — the uncompromising 1 opponent of 
slavery — sternly denounced the project, and in the 
vehemence of his indignation, declared that it was 
a virtual dissolution of the Union, which made it 
the right of all as it would become the duty of many, 
to prepare definitively for separation, amicably, if 
they might, forcibly, if they must. The attention of 
the Speaker having been called to these words, he 
decided, ei that to speak of the act in question as a 
virtual dissolution of the Union was admissible, but 
that when he declared that it was the duty of certain 
States under a certain contingency to separate peace- 
ably, if they might, forcibly, if they must, he was 
out of order." Hereupon the member appealed 
from the Speaker to the House, and the House by a 
majority of 56 to 53 reversed his decision, " many 
of the Democrats," observes Hildreth, " voting with 
the Federalists." 

We have here the remarkable fact of the House 
of Representatives deliberately affirming it was no 
treason to assert that it was not only the privilege, 
but also the duty 7 , of every State that believed the 
constitution violated, to go out of the Union. And 
who was this member who thus victoriously 
announced this theory of State privilege ? John 
Quincy Adams — your father, John Quincy Adams. 
Has this lesson also been lost upon you 1 Has the 
madness of the times so far infected you, or love of 



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office so far disordered you, that you are prepared 
not only to turn from your grandfather with abhor- 
rence as a traitor, but also from your father as an 
utterer of treason. 

Remember, too, it was not merely in a moment of 
excitement the venerable ex-President expressed 
these memorable opinions. Again I shift the scene 
to 1839, and recall him to you when addressing* the 
Historical Society of New York, met to celebrate 
the jubilee of the Constitution. His words were 
these : — 

"With these qualifications f conscience) we may 
admit the same right to be vested in the people of 
every State in the Union, with reference to the 
general government which was exercised by the 
people of the American colonies with reference to 
the supreme head of the British Empire, of which 
they formed a part, and under these limitations has 
the government of each State a right to secede from 
the Confederation itself." 

Reflect, I beseech you, on these words of the 
Patriarch Statesman, addressing himself to a North- 
ern audience, assembled to do honour to the Consti- 
tution of the United States. And no one better 
than } T ourself knows that this language is in perfect 
conformity with that of the leading framers of the 
Constitution, Hamilton and Madison, when speaking 
in Convention. You well know, too, that the doctrine 
of State-rights, pushed to the utmost, was the cun- 
ning and captivating device by means of which the 



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great ulta-democrat, Thomas Jefferson, over-rode 
the influence of Washington and Hamilton. You 
are well aware too that this doctrine, which, under 
the management of this ambitious intriguer, became 
the creed of the majority, found its chief support in 
the South, and, for a while, its chief opposition in 
the Eastern States. You could, I dare say, repeat 
those famous u Kentucky Resolutions/' in which the 
model man of the American republic distinctly as- 
serted the right of any State to go out of the Union 
whenever it was so inclined. And you must well 
remember how consistently he adhered to it in 1814, 
when the Eastern States, repudiating their previous 
policy, seemed to be preparing' either for going over 
to, or making a separate peace with, the enemy. 
While Madison, believing* they were going, was, in 
a state of great alarm, eating his words uttered 
when in the act of framing the Constitution, Jeffer- 
son contented himself with quietly saying, iC \et them 
go." And unless my memory much deceives me, 
you yourself have given us evidence that all these 
precedents had fully wrought their effect in you. 
For, if I recollect rightly, on your accepting office 
under Mr. Lincoln, you suggested, in } r our farewell 
letter to your constituents, separation as a mode of 
putting an end to the great schism between the 
North and South. 

That despite, then, the examples set you by 
those for whom you have ever felt a profound re- 
spect, despite the early lessons which you your- 



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self must have received from the eloquent advocate 
of the right of secession, your own father, despite 
your own assent to this teaching" up to a late 
period, you should have been the faithful servant of 
a Government which, in contempt of all authorities 
and all theories, has scourged secession with fire 
and sword, has long been a matter of painful sur- 
prise to me, and they may one day be to you a 
source of deep remorse. The past cannot be re- 
called, it may be at least partially atoned. The 
South crushed, not in fair and manly fight, not by 
the North single handed, but aided by swarms 
of foreign mercenaries, is completely overwhelmed. 
A cry for vengeance volunteered b} r the President, 
and made acceptable to the people, it is to be feared, 
by the recent catastrophe, has gone forth. Now then, 
is the moment when recovering your respect for your 
household gods you should refuse to uphold the 
character of the present administration by }*our 
honourable name ; when you should return to your 
fellow citizens to disarm their revenge, and lead 
them to a clement use of their unfair victory. 
Withdraw from a post in which, through your 
descent, your character, your acquirements and 
your manners, you are made use of as a blind to 
deceive the English people, as to the description of 
persons who are now thrown up into the public 
service of your country. Looking at \'ou, their old 
associations are undisturbed, and they find nothing- 
that is not consonant with the best days of the Re- 



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public. Sore need have they then of the presence, 
of one who will better represent the official type of 
the day, and who will bring 1 vividly to their con- 
sciousness the full significance of the change which 
has taken place between the days of Washington 
and those of Andrew Johnson. 

But above all; fly, I beseech you, to the aid of the 
black man.* The hour of his extreme peril may be 
at hand. For if fanatical benevolence should sud- 
denly lift him from childish dependence to adult 
responsibility, should force him who never has had 
need to care for the morrow, to win his bread amid 
the conflict of labour, there will be ghastlier scenes 
in that unhappy South, than history has ever yet 
portrayed. There will be hundreds of thousands 
destroyed by famine, or swept off by disease, thou- 
sands driven by despair or discontent into revolt, 
cut down by the liberating sword. f Great and good 
service would it be to stay this threatened plague, 
which you and others have brought upon the land. 

* Now that the North is invited and can hardly refuse, to 
accept the Negro as a fellow elector at the poll, I suppose I 
shall give no offence by calling him a man. This would not 
have been the case a day or two ago, when public feeling in the 
North would not admit him as a fellow passenger in an omni- 
bus ! In the old world Ambition has had its wars on a frightful 
scale — so has Fanaticism. In the new world they have been 
both outdone in this respect by Hypocrisy. 

f The mischief is already at work. By the last accounts we 
learn that a black regiment has threatened to fire on its officers, 
and that the ominous order has been published to suspend the 
issue of arms to the coloured troops. 



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And this accomplished, or attempted, if you hare 
enough of life and energy left, there is another 
great work of emancipation before you, of less 
doubtful value than the first. There is the task 
of emancipating* the intelligence of your country 
from the grasp of its ignorance, of endeavouring in 
the political arrangements for the future to find 
some check upon the crush and despotism of num- 
bers, and of proceeding to reconstruct the somewhat 
limited republic bequeathed you by our forefathers, 
by first destroying the unlimited rabbledom with 
which you have been cursed by your contemporaries. 

This would be a noble task and is a needful one. 
While, in this country, ignorant persons of great 
pretensions have been drawing* fancy sketches of 
American progress, the decay of American liberty 
has been on the spot the surprise of many a for- 
eigner, and the lament of many a citizen. A cry 
of distress has gone up from your own New-Eng- 
land home. A voice from the watch-tower has long 
since given warning — the voice of one whose me- 
mory is cherished with respect and reverence, both 
in England and America : — I allude to him who 
has been called the illustrious Channing. It is well 
that Englishmen should hear, and that } r ou should 
be reminded of, his touching and melancholy plaint. 

" Not long ago I received a letter from a fervent 
and enlightened friend of liberty in Great Britain, 
beseeching me to inform him how far he was to rely 
on one of his own countrymen, just returned from 



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the United States, who had reported to him that, 
again and again he had in the most respectable 
society been told that the experiment of freedom was 
here a failure, and that faith in our institutions was 
gone. That the traveller misinterpreted, in a mea- 
sure, what he heard we shall all acknowledge. But 
is the old enthusiasm unchilled among us ? Is the 
old jealousy of power as keen and uncompromising ? 
Do not parties more unscrupulously encroach on the 
constitution, and the rights of minorities ? In one 
respect we must all admit a change. When you 
and I grew up, what a deep interest pervaded this 
country in the success of free institutions abroad ! 
With what throbbing hearts did we follow the 
struggles of the oppressed. How many among us 
were ready to lay down our lives for the cause of 
liberty on earth ! And now who cares for free 
institutions abroad? How seldom does the topic 
pass men's lips ! Multitudes, discouraged, by the 
licentiousness at home, doubt the value of popular 
institutions, especially in less enlightened countries, 
while greater numbers, locked up in gain, can spare 
no thought on the struggles of liberty ; and pro- 
vided they can drive a prosperous trade with foreign 
nations, care little whether they are bound or free. 
I may be thought inclined to draw a dark picture 
of our moral condition. But at home I can sit 
down among those who hope against hope ; and I 
have never ceased to condemn as a crime the de- 



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spondency of those, who, lamenting' the corruption 
of the times, do not lift a finger to withstand it." 

It is impossible to read these memorable words 
without feeling- that Channing's apprehensions were 
greater than he chose to express. What would he 
say now ? But we need not his voice to tell us that 
liberty in these days, is in far sorer straits from the 
misrule of American demagogues, than it ever was 
in our forefathers' days from the misrule of British 
statesmen. Fly then, grandson of John Adams, fly 
to the rescue. There is before you, I repeat, a most 
noble task, and a most needful one. 

At all events that you should at once disconnect 
your name, suggestive of great deeds and. great 
men, from that vile Government which is an insult 
to those who achieved American independence and 
founded the American Union, who, once denounced 
as rebels, will for ever live in histor} r as patriots, is 
the earnest prayer of one who, like yourself, is a 
kinsman of some of them. 

I have the honour to be, Sir, 

Your obedient servant, 

R. S. H. CHURCH. 



To his Excellency, 

Hon. C. F. Adams, 
&c. &c. 



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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



